Powerboost and Mach E

[Lefty665]

A couple of questions for those of you with experience with both vehicles. I'm looking at a Mach E before the Federal incentive expires at the end of the month.

1) If needed can I charge the Mach E from my Powerboost? I ask because the PB generator is rated at 30 amps and the Mach E charges at 32 amps. Can the rate of charge be dropped 10% or so? I recall HammaMan showed the PB generator working at a little more than 7200 watts. Would that be enough to handle the Mach E charging?

2) Can I use the Mach E to power my house during outages like I currently do with the PB? If so can I use the setup I already have to feed power to the house? It would be really nice to be able to use the same cable and just plug into the Mach E.

3) Same going the other way to charge the Mach E from house power. It would be great to be able to just plug in my existing cable. I'd be happy with about 30 amps. The 48 amp 11kw charging rate is more than I need, and 120v ain't enough.

4) Anything y'all particularly like or dislike about the Mach E?

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[Snakebitten]

You can charge with your Powerboost. But I suggest if you intend to, grab an EVSE with adjustable L2 output. (all the good ones do) That way you can "tune" the charging rate to whatever burden you chose to put on ProPower.

(The emergency portable Ford charger is not a great match for ProPower)

And again, just my personal opinion, but if you do grab a Mach-E, absolutely get one with Magnaride. By design, there is very little suspension travel on the Mach-E. As a result it's very difficult to choose a single spring rate and damping rate that will be good in both comfort and composure over varying road conditions. The analog suspension is fine for nice smooth tarmac. But it's a pogo ride over dips, waves, and bumps.

The Magnaride magic is night & day difference. And with the insane performance of a sporty EV, it so deserves the suspension to go along with that performance.

Here's one of my sons watching dad's truck charge dad's car just enough so he can get from the beach back to home.

 

[B177y]

1) Yes, with the proper charger set to 30 amps or less. You can't adjust the amperage from the MME itself.

2) No. The MME has no "power out" capability unless you need 12 volt sockets or USB.

3) With the right charger or adapter that has a J1772 end, you can charge from your house no problem. Charging at 48 or 32 amps isn't going to affect anything. If your current setup is 48 amps, use that and don't worry.

4) I loved my MME but agree with @Snakebitten that the ride could get a little harsh on bad roads. I had a '23 California Route 1 which is a lower trim without Magnaride. I traded the MME and sold a 25 year old F350 for a Lightning. The Lightning fits all of my needs. If money was no object I would still have the MME. The MME and Lightning are #1 & #2 on my "Favorite vehicles I have ever owned" list.

 

[Lefty665]

Thanks guys, exactly what I was looking for.

Bummer that we can't use the 88kwh battery to run the house. I suppose I can find, or make an adapter from the nema plug on the Powerboost cable to J1772 and use that cord for charging, but again, that's a 30 amp circuit. Grrr.

The idea of buying a charger with an adjustable charging current to plug into the PB or house to be able to charge the MME is underwhelming. That minor charge rate/house circuit/generator capacity mismatch between Ford products is the kind of failure to integrate apps that I used to rail about in IT. Left hand, meet right hand. Why don't you two talk?

Magnaride looks like a good trick. See if I can find one with that and without the $1.6k glass roof.

 

[Ajzride]

Thanks guys, exactly what I was looking for. Bummer that we can't use the 88kwh battery to run the house. I suppose I can find, or make an adapter from the nema plug on the Powerboost cable to J1772 and use that cord for charging. Magnaride looks like a good trick. See if I can find one with that and without the $1.6k glass roof.

you can run the house from the MachE, I saw a post on the MachE forum about. However it was a very redneck engineered method to make it work, not officially supported at all.

 

[B177y]

The idea of buying a charger with an adjustable charging current to plug into the PB or house to be able to charge the MME is underwhelming. That minor charge rate/house circuit/generator capacity mismatch between Ford products is the kind of failure to integrate apps that I used to rail about in IT. Left hand, meet right hand. Why don't you two talk?

The Lightning comes with a Nema 14-50 plug that has a yellow band on it and an adapter for the 30 amp twist outlet in the bed to allow 30 amp charging from the Ford supplied charger. If you have the Ford travel charger, I'm pretty sure you can find one of these 30 amp plugs with the yellow band online to allow you to charge from the PB PPO at 30 amps.

Getting an adjustable amperage travel charger with an assortment of adapters is a good investment to allow charging the MME in whatever situation you come across. I have charged my MME and Lightning this way at various friends houses from 30 amp dryer plugs (24 amp 240 volt charge), RV parks (I drop the amperage to 32, 24, or 16 depending on how robust the RV park wiring and power box looks), and 20 amp welder outlets in a shop (16 amp 240 volt charge). It also does 120 volt charging if that's the only thing available.

If I understand your posts, you already have a 48 amp charger at your house? Just use this, it's perfect for an MME.

 

[Lefty665]

The Lightning comes with a Nema 14-50 plug that has a yellow band on it and an adapter for the 30 amp twist outlet in the bed to allow 30 amp charging from the Ford supplied charger. If you have the Ford travel charger, I'm pretty sure you can find one of these 30 amp plugs with the yellow band online to allow you to charge from the PB PPO at 30 amps.

Getting an adjustable amperage travel charger with an assortment of adapters is a good investment to allow charging the MME in whatever situation you come across. I have charged my MME and Lightning this way at various friends houses from 30 amp dryer plugs (24 amp 240 volt charge), RV parks (I drop the amperage to 32, 24, or 16 depending on how robust the RV park wiring and power box looks), and 20 amp welder outlets in a shop (16 amp 240 volt charge). It also does 120 volt charging if that's the only thing available.

If I understand your posts, you already have a 48 amp charger at your house? Just use this, it's perfect for an MME.

No I don't, sorry I wasn't clear. What I've got is what I've been using for a generator input to the house, a 30 amp circuit (never got to that load using PB to power the house. Dunno which will trip first, circuit breaker or PB. My guess is PB with over current). I'd just as soon not install 60 amp breakers and wiring to handle MME high rate charging. 30 will be enough, presuming it will handle the MME 32 amp rate. I'm getting old, not as much variety as we used to have, sold the camper, so home charging and rare charging from PB will cover my needs. Neat on the adapter, I figured there would be one out there if I rooted around a little.

I'll look on the MME forum for running the house when the power is out. From my location you can see that a redneck solution will fit right in. You can tell you're a redneck if you turn your MME upside down in the yard and hot wire it to power your shack and satellite dish. But hey, progress eventually gets everywhere. I'm scheduled to get fiber lit up this afternoon. DSL was a great idea 20 years ago, but it's been obsolete for a long time. Dunno what I'll do with all that bandwidth. Wonder if I can use it to charge a MME? Charging at the speed of light, that would be progress. Where's Nicola Tesla's broadcast power now that we need it?

 

[Snakebitten]

Thanks guys, exactly what I was looking for.


Magnaride looks like a good trick. See if I can find one with that and without the $1.6k glass roof.

The Rally is Magnaride, sans the glass roof, and supposedly the funnest handling of them all

 

[Snakebitten]

Mach-E forum thread regarding tapping that big sweet battery bank for juice

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/v2x-with-our-mustang-mach-e.48930/

 

[Ajzride]

Looks like the solution I was thinking of was a 12v inverter to 120AC. He got 3000watts but only 120v.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...hrough-power-outage-with-flying-colors.37965/

 

[amschind]

I keep an L2 charger in my bed just like jumper cables. I put a couple of miles on a buddy's VOLT to test it, and another friend wouldn't let me use it on his Model S because he is a very committed tree hugger and preferred to use a 120V extension cable. So yes, it absolutely will charge it in a pinch,

 

[LCMM55]

A couple of questions for those of you with experience with both vehicles. I'm looking at a Mach E before the Federal incentive expires at the end of the month.

1) If needed can I charge the Mach E from my Powerboost? I ask because the PB generator is rated at 30 amps and the Mach E charges at 32 amps. Can the rate of charge be dropped 10% or so? I recall HammaMan showed the PB generator working at a little more than 7200 watts. Would that be enough to handle the Mach E charging?

2) Can I use the Mach E to power my house during outages like I currently do with the PB? If so can I use the setup I already have to feed power to the house? It would be really nice to be able to use the same cable and just plug into the Mach E.

3) Same going the other way to charge the Mach E from house power. It would be great to be able to just plug in my existing cable. I'd be happy with about 30 amps. The 48 amp 11kw charging rate is more than I need, and 120v ain't enough.

4) Anything y'all particularly like or dislike about the Mach E?

You will still be using gas FOSSIL FUEL to charge THE COAL CAR. LOL

 

[Tosh]

The Rally is Magnaride, sans the glass roof, and supposedly the funnest handling of them all

Oh Hell Yeah

- Tosh O'Rally (from the Willamette Valley)

 

[Tosh]

You will still be using gas FOSSIL FUEL to charge THE COAL CAR. LOL

Using the PB's ProPower to charge an MME is not recommended on a daily basis. It's relatively slow and very inefficient.. However it can be done, and in an emergency could be very helpful.

I can also use my ProPower to run backup to my house. In the event that my main power fails, there's no sun to drive my PV array, and my reserve batteries are dead, I will still have some juice available to charge my Mach-E.

Just got to remember to have the Powerboost gas tank filled up before the apocalypse ......

 

[Lefty665]

You will still be using gas FOSSIL FUEL to charge THE COAL CAR. LOL

No s* Sherlock. What i care about is in a pinch being able to charge the MME from the PB.

Lifecycle impact from mining through disposal shows that hybrids are cleaner than either ICE or EVs. Smaller batteries, smaller engines (mostly - not PB), better gas mileage and less carbon generated EV charging mean lower resource cost/pollution, lower operating pollution and lower disposal pollution.

Tosh It's relatively slow and very inefficient.

30 amps at 240volts sure ain't 11Kw, but it's enough to provide a reasonable charge in a pinch, and not all that inefficient. Yeah, PB does a good enough job as backup on my house that I gave my generator to my son. I live in the country and learned long ago to never head home with less than a half tank of gas.

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